Hau'oli Lä Hänau
by mischiefmanaged0116
Summary: Five-0 is in the midst of a hard case when Danny Williams remembers its his birthday. He's sure that he'll be spending it alone, but will he? Rated T for mild violence and a little language to be safe, probably more like K .


A/N: This fic is dedicated to Phoenix McGarrett, whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday, and enjoy the fic. (Yes, this is the one I wouldn't let you read)

Disclaimer: I, unfortunately, do not own Hawaii Five-0, nor do I own any of its characters.

* * *

When Danny Williams woke up that morning, he had been so mentally and physically exhausted that he had barely been able to get dressed and out the door somewhat on time. With that in mind, it hadn't been odd that he didn't realize the date until he picked up his phone to plug it in when he got in the car. What was odd, however, was that Danny's birthday had managed to sneak up on him with barely a thought. Vaguely, he remembered thinking at the beginning of the month that his birthday would be coming up, but it wasn't too much of a surprise that he had forgotten, seeing as that was before they had caught the case from hell they had been working on for the last couple of weeks.

Even just the thought of the case made Danny shudder. With it being August, tourists were all over the island, especially those with young children. He supposed that was the reason the serial killer had decided now was the best time to plague the island with his presence. Within the last two and a half weeks, three families had been killed. While every case and every death bothered the members of Five-0 to a degree, these murders had been particularly tough on the team. Between Steve's parental issues, Chin's memory of Malia's death, Kono's sensitivity towards families being destroyed, and Danny's protectiveness over his daughter, the whole team had been tense and overworked, exhausting themselves trying to find the killer.

They were no closer to catching the killer now than they were two weeks ago. All Five-0 knew was that the murderer was a man, taller than Danny but shorter than Steve, and considering that a great percentage of the male population of Hawaii fit that description, it hadn't helped much. Their lack of progress wasn't for an absence of trying though. Every time Five-0 had come anywhere close to a lead, they had ended up getting either shot at or nearly blown up. Not that it was anything new, seeing as Steve McGarrett was in charge, but Danny's chances of spending his birthday in the hospital were significantly higher than they had been in years past. Well, at least if he did end up in the hospital, he'd have company on his birthday because right now, it looked like he was going to be all alone.

Since his birthday fell during the week, it meant he didn't have Grace. Rachel had always been good about switching arrangements for birthdays and special events, but she had been busy these last couple of weeks as well, and he supposed she hadn't been thinking about it. He couldn't exactly blame her, seeing as he hadn't even remembered his birthday. Danny thought about calling and seeing if Rachel would mind if he took Grace after school, but then he vaguely remembered Rachel saying something about a family dinner with Stan's sister and decided not to. He wasn't in the right mindset to be celebrating anyway, so maybe he would just do something special with Grace this weekend.

He contemplated asking the rest of Five-0 out for beers, but if today went anything like the last few weeks, no one would be in the mood for it. Meeting up at the Palace at seven in the morning, they had been chasing leads and looking over case files, and if they were lucky and hadn't been blown up, they went home at eight in the evening. Everyone ate and attempted to sleep before coming back the next day to start all over again, more stressed and sleep-deprived than the day before.

With a sigh, Danny wrenched himself out of his thoughts and checked the time. It was already six forty-five and Danny groaned, knowing that with all the traffic, it would take him at least another half hour to get to headquarters. Since he was already going to be late, maybe he'd stop and pick up some breakfast and coffee for the team. At the thought of malasadas and coco puffs, his stomach growled, and Danny decided a detour was definitely in order.

* * *

It was seven fifty-six on the dot when Danny walked into headquarters. At first, everyone had glared at him as they looked up from the papers they had been going through, but when the other three members of Five-0 saw that he was holding breakfast and coffee, the glares quickly disappeared as they started moving papers around so they could eat. With a smirk, Danny put the food down on the newly cleaned off table and sat down next to Steve, who had an expression on his face that seemed to be a mixture of irritation and gratitude. Danny watched Steve as he struggled to find something to say.

"You're late." Steve finally decided on. Danny just looked at him.

"I would've been here about twenty minutes ago if I hadn't stopped to get your loco moco, so I would be quiet if I were you." Danny responded right away, and Steve just gave him a small grin before grabbing the container with his breakfast. Danny just rolled his eyes and turned towards Chin and Kono. "I brought coco puffs and malasadas too."

The cousins both nodded in thanks before grabbing something and starting to eat. For a few moments, all that could be heard was the sound of the team eating, perfectly content to stay silent. That is, until Danny happened to look over towards the huge stack of paper teetering on the edge of the table. "Find anything?"

The mood immediately darkened slightly, and Steve put down his fork and took a sip of coffee before answering Danny's question. "Well, we were searching through old cases in other tourist hot spots, and found a couple with a near identical MO. The kids were killed first, in a surprisingly painless manner, then the husband in a similar way, and finally the wife who was killed in the most painful way possible."

"Alright…" Danny said, nodding slowly. "I'm assuming this is going somewhere."

"We never would've seen it if we hadn't done some digging into the first murder. Turns out the family that was murdered in New York City in 1990 was a newlywed couple. The wife had just finalized a nasty divorce, in which she gained complete custody over their young daughter, due to her ex-husband's nasty temper and anger issues. When the cops went to question the ex, they found that he had disappeared." Steve said, getting up and walking over to the smart table. Danny watched as he pulled a picture up, and his first thought was that the man in the picture looked familiar. He was definitely Hawaiian, and appeared to be in his early to mid twenties. Danny was sure, however, that if he had seen the man, he had been a bit older and not as lean. It hadn't been recently, nor had it been frequently, and Danny could only wonder if the man had been connected to a case.

He stared at the picture for a few more minutes, trying to imagine the face aged. Suddenly, he remembered. "His daughter was smothered in her sleep. What was his name…Billy? Ben? I think his last name was Sargent?"

Steve smirked, and Danny looked at him questioningly, causing Steve's smirk to widen as he turned to the cousins. "Pay up, you two. I told you he'd remember."

Danny rolled his eyes, and Steve turned back to him, probably having seen it out of the corner of his eye. "What?"

"You bet on whether or not I would remember a victim's father." Danny said slowly, emphasising every word. "Do you not see anything wrong with that?"

"Anyways," Steve continued as if Danny hadn't answered, "You're right. His real name, however, is David Waena. Left the island to go to Rutgers University in Jersey, and met Anna Rikers. They were married after a year, and then two years later, she divorced him due to anger issues, and remarried about three years later. That's around the time he killed them. Since then, there have been six other families murdered across the mainland up to 1993, and then our three recently."

"What set him off again? He obviously stopped for about 20 years, why start back up?" Danny questioned.

"His wife filed for a divorce about a month ago. Apparently his temper has been getting worse since Karen was killed. She's had enough." Steve answered, and Danny shook his head.

"And you managed to dig all of this up in one hour this morning?" Danny said disbelieving. Chin and Kono, who had been quietly eating breakfast while Steve had filled Danny in, both turned to look at Steve with a mixture of amused and disapproving glances. Steve on the other hand, had gone back to calmly eating his loco moco. "Hello? Anyone?"

"It turns out Steve didn't go home with the rest of us last night." Chin said, with a disapproving air. "He went, got dinner, and came back. I don't know what time he worked until, but I came in this morning to see him sleeping on the couch in the same clothes he was wearing yesterday."

Danny looked at Steve in irritation. "You're an idiot."

"Danny, I-"

"Nope. I don't want to hear it. What's the rule?" Danny said. Kono and Chin had to stifle their laughs as Steve sighed.

"No working after we decide to go home for the night." Steve said in the tone of someone who had said the same thing hundreds of times before.

"Good boy." Danny said and now it was Steve's turn to roll his eyes. If Danny thought it would do any good, he would have refused to let Steve drive, or maybe come up with something else to punish him for breaking one of their only rules, but it was Steve. He would just do it anyway, and deal with the consequences later. With a sigh, Danny decided to move on instead of ranting at Steve, which is what he really wanted to do. "So do we know how to find Waena or Sargent or whoever he is?"

"I can answer that." Kono piped up, looking up from a tablet that Danny could've sworn had come out of no where. "He was just seen checking in for a flight to the mainland that leaves in three hours under the alias of Brian Denton." She paused for a moment to let that sink in, before turning to Steve, who had a thoughtful look on his face. "How do you want to play this one, boss?"

"Well…" Steve started, and Danny exchanged a look with Kono and Chin. This wasn't going to end well.

* * *

Contrary to Danny's initial misgivings, Steve's plan went well. They stormed the airport after putting their suspect on the no flight list, and it took them very little time to find the man pacing anxiously by the gate. Of course, he had somehow managed to have a gun on him, which would be investigated later, so of course there had been a shoot out. It had ended with the man lying dead on the floor, shot in the stomach by Danny and the chest by Steve. Before they had managed to him down though, Waena had managed to get off a couple of decent shots, and while Danny had managed to duck the ones sent his way, Waena had been mostly focusing his gunfire on Steve, resulting in a graze to the right shoulder and left leg.

They had left HPD to deal with the body, and Danny and Steve walked out to the car, planning to meet Chin and Kono, who had been keeping civilians away during the takedown, back at headquarters. That was when the biggest shock of Danny's life happened; Steven J. McGarrett tossed him the keys to the Camaro and opened the passenger door. For several moments, all Danny could do was stare, until eventually Steve raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat.

"Are we going to be leaving anytime this century, Danno?" Steve asked as he leaned on the top of the car. Danny just looked at him.

"You...just gave me the keys." Danny stated.

"Very good." Steve rolled his eyes.

"I'm allowed to drive?" Danny continued in shock. "All the way back to the Palace."

"Correct again."

"But...why?" Danny asked.

"I have two bullet grazes from being shot at 20 minutes ago. Would you really like for me to drive? Because I have no problem with it…" Steve said, slightly amused, as he shifted his weight.

"Just shut up and get in the car." Danny grumbled, getting into the car and starting it while Steve let out a loud laugh before obliging. Danny reached out to turn on the radio but was stopped by a hand slapping his away. He turned to glare at the person in the passenger seat before starting to drive.

"Passenger picks the music, remember?" Steve said with an obnoxious smirk, and Danny had to remind himself that at least he was driving his own car as Steve put on the All-Hawaiian music station. Danny flinched when, after a moment, an ad for Hawaiian pizza came on as a commercial, and he violently shut the radio off. He could feel Steve shaking with suppressed laughter, as the man had been in an unusually buoyant mood all day, and groaned.

"Danny, why don't you at least give it a try? Pineapple tastes good on pizza." Steve tried, as he tended to, every couple of days or so. Danny shook his head vehemently.

"No. You see, Steven, pineapple does not belong on pizza. Pineapple and ham on dough, maybe with some barbeque sauce or something? Sure. But as soon as you put tomato sauce on it, no. Tomato sauce and pineapple do not mix. If you went to a good, Italian pizzeria, they would look at you like you're insane, which you are, but that's beside the point. So no. I will not give it a try."

"From the way you talk, you'd think it was sacrilegious to put fruit on pizza." Steve said, and he sounded like he was torn between amusement and exasperation.

"And from the way you talk, you'd think that there was nothing you cared about more than pineapple. I'm not sure if there is, actually, considering how much you talk about it." Danny said with disgust. "Although how you can actually put up with that disgusting fruit from hell is beyond me."

Steve just looked at him for a moment, and Danny barely had time to notice he hadn't seen that face before as Steve burst into laughter. Danny just sighed and pressed down on the gas pedal.

* * *

A few hours later, Steve knocked on Danny's office door, and summoned him out to the main area of headquarters. With a sigh, Danny pushed away all the paperwork he was filling out and got up. With any luck, whatever Steve had to say would be brief, and he could get back to finishing his work, and most likely Steve's, before dinnertime. He only had a bit more to go, but with his luck, Steve wouldn't have even started yet.

Danny walked into the room to see Chin and Kono laughing while Steve just stood there with his arms crossed. "What did I miss?"

"Nothing." Steve said quickly as Kono and Chin continued to laugh. Danny turned to Kono.

"Tell me later." Danny said, and Kono nodded in agreement. Steve just rolled his eyes. "So what's this impromptu meeting all about?"

"Well, since we've finally finished up this case, I was thinking," Here Steve paused to glare at Danny, who was making a terrified face at the fact that Steve was thinking, "That maybe we could all go get a bite to eat tonight."

"I'm in." Kono agreed.

"Sounds good to me." Chin agreed a moment later.

Danny slowly nodded his head. Maybe he wouldn't be as alone tonight as he thought. "Sure, why not? Where do you want to go? The Hilton?"

"We could go to that Italian place we all like." Chin suggested, but Kono wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Nah, I'm not feeling Italian tonight." She said, and Steve nodded his agreement.

"There's always the Pineapple Room." Steve said with a grin, and Danny stared at him threateningly. "Or maybe not. How about Wolfgang's?"

Kono, Chin, and Danny all agreed quite quickly, and Steve continued. "Alright so it's two o'clock now. What do you say we all head out at about two thirty, and we can meet for dinner at six?"

"On one condition." Danny said, and Steve looked at him, slightly confused. "No cargo pants." That set Kono and Chin off again, and soon enough they were all standing there, laughing so hard that they could barely breathe, and Danny remembered that no matter how bad it got sometimes, and no matter how much he hated this pineapple infested hellhole, there was no where else he'd rather be.

* * *

Danny parked the car, and by five fifty-five, was on his way into Wolfgang's Steakhouse. He was surprised when he walked in and noticed that no one, not even Steve, was there yet. After loitering in the lobby for a few minutes, he figured they had already sat down, and walked over to the maitre d. As soon as Danny went to open his mouth, the man nodded and signalled for Danny to follow him. He did, wondering what kind of game the team was playing as he was led to a party room for twenty. When the maitre d walked away, leaving him by the doors, he was suddenly aware that this could be an ambush, and he hadn't brought his gun in.

Danny, in a move that he would later blame on being around Steve too much, decided to just open the door, consequences be damned. He did so, only to jump back in shock as a bunch of people screamed, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DANNY!"

Danny stood there in shock, trying to take it all in. Standing in front of him was Steve, who had Grace beside him, and Chin, Kono, Adam, and Leilani were standing behind him. There were a bunch of other people in the room, and as soon as they had all finished laughing at his shocked expression, they all broke off into small groups and started talking, not ready to sit down yet.

"So? What do you think?" Danny heard Steve as he walked over with Grace. Danny forewent answering for a moment as he opened his arms for his daughter.

"How?" Danny asked Steve, who grinned.

"The dinner was at Stan's sister's house, and while she has a daughter a little older than Charlie, there wasn't anyone Gracie's age. Rachel agreed that she could come here instead. She apologizes for forgetting, by the way, and said happy birthday." Steve said, and Danny just continued to stare at him. "What?"

"How did you manage to do all this? I didn't even remember it was my birthday until this morning with all the work we've had." Danny asked, amazed, as he looked around the room. Duke, Charlie, Max, Sabrina, Kono, Chin, Adam and Leilani were in one part of the room, laughing at something that someone had said. Kamekona and his cousin were talking to Doris and Joe, surprisingly, which Danny never would've guessed in a million years. And he thought, but couldn't be sure, that was Catherine, Governor Denning, and a couple of aides, talking in the back corner. For a man who had been sure he was going to spend his birthday alone, Danny was in a room with an awful lot of people, with Steve to thank for it.

"Trade secret." Steve smirked. "All I can say is, it's been in the works a while. We would've been quitting early today whether we had caught the guy or not."

Danny smiled at Steve, the thank you hopefully evident in his expression, but before he could say anything, Grace spoke up. "Danno, I have your present in Uncle Steve's car. Can I go get it?"

Danny looked back towards Steve, who nodded. "Sure, Monkey."

"Gracie, why don't we also put your backpack in Danno's car in case Mom can't come and pick you up. You want to just give me your keys, Danno? This way you can mingle." Steve suggested.

Danny rolled his eyes fondly, but threw Steve the keys anyway.

* * *

At the end of the night, Danny walked out to the car alone, Rachel having picked up Grace an hour or so before. He unlocked the car, and was about to sit down when he realized there was something on his seat. Turning on the light, he saw it was a pineapple, with a card underneath it. As soon as he read it, Danny knew who it was from, regardless of the fact that there was no signature, and threw his head back laughing.

_I love you more than pineapple._


End file.
